


Chains At Midnight

by capitainpistol



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Accidental Incest, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 18:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6435574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capitainpistol/pseuds/capitainpistol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia is having a tough time after escaping from Jabba the Hutt in ROTJ. Luke comforts her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chains At Midnight

The gauze is impossible to put on by herself, her palms hurt so, but she yelled at everyone, demanded to be left alone, and she’s obeyed. Leia wasn’t new to this kind of authority, but they moved far too quickly, in a panic. Never before had they been afraid of her.

They came in ones. Someone brought her medical supplies, another brought her clothes, and someone else came with a tray of food. She risked the stabbing pains in her hands to slam the hatch shut behind the last of the New Republic strangers. Her rescue team still in recovery after being rescued.

She had taken off the robe and slave outfit, easy enough to do without hands. Jumping into the pants and slipping on the blouse took a little more time. The more she used her fingers, the more she bled.

A loud wrenching sound caught her attention. She closed her hands over her unbuttoned blouse to cover herself. “I wanted to be left alone. I already have food.”

Plenty of cooked meat and fruits, plus a good gallon of water. On this dump of a sand planet, this was a delicacy. She suddenly felt terrible for snapping at them.

Luke stood at her door. He wasn’t fooled, but he waited for her to give him permission to enter. 

“It isn’t so bad,” she said, gesturing for him to come in.

His eyes fell to her chest where her arms were crossed. She struggled not to react to the pain when she hid her hands.

He grabbed more gauze from the mess on the table and picked up the gallon of water on his way over, setting them down in front of her. He was ready to examine her hands, but she hugged herself tighter. “Now, hold on there, Master Jedi. My blouse.”

“Sorry.” Luke honestly hadn’t noticed. Her heart might as well have been ripped from her chest. He was so concerned. 

“I need you to…” The words ‘help me’ were the correct words to finish that sentence, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. From the speeder riding away from Jabba’s clutches all the way to bunker, all everyone did was ask her what she wanted help with. “My shirt.”

She slightly squirmed as the hem of her blouse brushed up against her waist. She had pressed her arms harder around herself, and only managed to expose more of her skin.

Luke nodded. Without looking, he prodded at the buttons, closing one after the other, his knuckles softly grazing the thin fabric and her skin underneath. At the waistband of her pants he stopped. “I’m going to. I have to. I mean.” He sighed deeply and forced himself to smile. He zipped up the zipper and closed the button. 

Once finished, he led her to sit down, unwrapped the terribly wrapped gauze around her palms, and poured water on her palms. “Sometimes the oldest tricks are the best ones.” The water had a different effect than the antiseptic. The stinging didn’t last as long. Luke’s touch seemed to take the pain away.

He had her by the wrist, his fingers tapping delicately at her vein, a simple slow beat that went against the rapid one of her heart. He correctly wrapped the gauze around her palm. At the final tug to close it, she winced loudly.

“It’s not so bad,” he said with a raised brow, bringing her words back to her. 

He wrapped the other hand with the same delicacy as the first. “Your pod racing career is at an end, I’m afraid. Might have to go into politics.”

Leia smiled for the first time in days. “Think they’ll give me a medal for killing Jabba? Everyone’s been patting me on the back. Saying, good job. Good job for strangling a sentient to death. And the ones that aren’t thanking me are too afraid.”

“You _have_ threatened to strangle them, though.”

“I threaten to kill everyone all the time. I’ve never really thought about it.” 

Not until she had the chain around Jabba’s throat. The big slug writhed under metal, gargling for breath. More shocked than anything else, he choked on his own spit, shouting frantic commands as his little empire crumbled around him.

“Hey, it’s all right.” Luke caressed her cheek. “You did what you had to do.”

“What I had to do was bring him in. That’s the only thing that makes us different from our enemies, Luke.” She didn’t mean to sound both petulant and patronizing, but she did. 

Fortunately, Luke did not snap back. Leia could practically see the thoughts roaming in his sensitive brain. 

Luke surprised her by taking his time, his countenance changing from concerned to fiercely protective. Seeing her hurt made him rage inside. “When I saw you up there, I wanted to kill him myself.” He felt more shame in the imaginary act than in her real one, but that shame quickly made way for conviction. “I would have.” 

Now it was her turn to caress his face. Leia promised herself to stop doing that, at least when it became awkward. Except it never did. “You would have regretted it. Like me.”

“Then you would be coming to me and helping me feel better.”

There it was. Help. Luke had a way of saying it without making it seem a weakness. “What else would have made you feel better?” She asked.

“Just this,” he said, taking one of her hands and kissing her fingers. “Nothing else.”


End file.
